WHY ALMA DIDN'T WANT THE JOB

SELF-POSSESSED AS USUAL, ALMA POWELL IGNORED THE little chair that had been set up for her onstage and took her place at her husband's side. She looked at him not with a stagy gaze of adoration but with the warm, sometimes amused expression that often flows from her blue-green eyes. She fielded questions easily, even had fun cutting off one of Sam Donaldson's follow-ups. But more revealing than anything she said was the superb little hip check she used to push Powell aside so she could step up to a question--a gesture so swift and subtle few in the audience noticed...